FINALLY ON THE ROAD!!!!!

This is it! We were finally on the road, heading for the first ferry that will lead us to Venice, Italy. Last month has been extremely hectic with last minute preparations, but whatever is done is done at this point. The bikes were loaded late on Monday, and the truth is that they felt veeeeeryyy heavy.

On our way to the port of Patras, the first problem showed up (and hopefully the last, although this is wishful thinking). The clutch of the 690 went dead, and Alex had to drive it through tolls with the engine stalling every time. A quick stop at a gas station to add some clutch fluid and make some phone calls to one of our mechanics did not really resolve things. With the night crawling on us, the ferry departure coming closer, and the marvelous Corinth to Patras highway (whoever has done it knows), we had a bit of a pressure thing going on.

Finally at the port, parked in front of the ferry we took the clutch system apart, trying to bleed the air out of it, and added some more oil. In the meantime the ferry was ready to depart, while Alex was still trying to put the bike together, so I had to drive on the loading ramp and park the bike there in order to prevent them from leaving us in Greece!

At this point it is day 2 on the ferry and we are another 14 hours away from Venice. We spoke with Alex's mechanic and he advised us to replace the clutch pump with a spare one that we have with us. This will in most likelihood provide a permanent solution to our problem. So once on Italian soil this will be our first aim. From there we are going to ride down to Sete, France, and see if we can catch the ferry to Morocco (950km in a day). If that fails we will reconsider our options further south.

Due to the poor satellite connection on the ship, photos will be uploaded at the first opportunity.
Spirits are high, and we can hardly wait to ride on African soil.

Test Run

Day 1: So we thought that 1800 kilometers in 56 hours would give us a good idea about how the bikes would behave (and ourselves riding them...). Of course the bikes would be fully loaded, with extra fuel, water and the rest, so that the simulation would be as real as possible. We also decided to add some dirt roads and a night of camping, just to spice things up a bit.
So Friday late late late in the afternoon we depart for northern Greece (Kavala) amid some really nasty weather, rain, wind, all the typical things one would encounter in the Sahara. I mean, anyway we have been training for the desert in the snow, mud and all those conditions that very closely simulate what the future fore holds, so why not give it another try? 400 kilometers down the road, wet, cold and with the night crawling upon us we start realizing that a single cylinder bike is not exactly the fastest way of transportation on paved highways. 8 cold hours later we reached our destination (12.30 am).

Meeting up with Stefanos

Stefanos crossing a stream

Day 2: Heading up for the forest of Cara dere (black forest in Turkish) close to the Bulgarian border, really close. Along with us is Stefanos, a good friend from Xanthi, and an owner of a KTM Adventure 640 as well.

Of course once we decided to get really close to the Bulgarian border, and away from any civilization my 640 had a "small" breakdown. The rear wheel bearing said goodbye. This was something that was gona be changed prior to the final departure, we just didnt hope it would happen here.

Happy camper

So with my rear wheel wiggling and my morale down a few notches we cruised through some snowy (yep) dirt roads in order to find a campground.

Happy campers

The place was overall breathtaking, huge pine trees, mountaintops, clean air, broken bearing, yeah everything was great!!!! But in the end the fire and cooking and wine got us all going!

Not so happy camper...

Waiting for the hub to cool off

Day 3: Woke up and realized that we have something like 850 kilometers in order to get back to Athens and my bike is broke. So we started riding back to Xanthi, slowly, very sloooowly, as in 30 kilometers per hour, stopping every 20 minutes to let the rear hub cool down and oiling it continuously, hoping it can make it. Honestly, these bikes are made from some tough shit, with all the weight that I was carrying on those nasty roads, and the rear hub gone completely and the wheel doing figure eights, I was surprised it went on! All the while the 690 was doing circles around me, stopping ahead of me for photos and waiting patiently... We did make it to Xanthi some 4 hours later. At that point Stefano's 640 was the solution. Within 10 minutes I removed his rear wheel, as well as mine, put his on and loaded mine on the rack, while leaving his bike freestanding in his parking lot. Millions of thanks for this small sacrifice, it was a miracle solution!

Broken wheel loaded and heading back to base for one last time.

Off we went with Alex, again late late afternoon to head back to Athens (only 750 kilometers to go, and it was already 04.00 pm!!!). We made it back to Athens, late, tired, a bit vibrated, but happy. I mean in 2 days we covered 1/4 of the distance that we are planning to cover next month, so I guess this was good after all. We also noted a few important things about our bikes (such as that going for 140kph for 2 hours nonstop does not work...). We also measured fuel consumptions and were amazed by how little the 690 needs in order to get by. With the new Safari tank on it can easily overpass 500 kilometers without refuelling, wow!!

So this is it, some final tuning is left for the bikes (especially the 640) and we are off....

Orange fever

Yellow fever certification booklet

I guess we have reached the final countdown at this point. Lots of things have been happening the past few weeks. We both visited our doctors to get a number of shots (Alex got 7 on one day!), among which was the yellow fever vaccine, mandatory for our entrance to Mali.


The visa for Mauritania has been another great hassle that remains unresolved to this point. Our initial attempt to get it through the French Consulate in Athens was abandoned, once we got a signal from there that it might take over two months, where in some cases they never even respond back. This led to an alteration of the initial route in Morocco, in order to make a stop in the capital city of Rabat. There we know for a fact from other overlanders that the Mauritanian Embassy will issue us a visa within 24 hours. I guess one needs to be flexible when trips like that are planned.

Michelin Desert

Finding the proper set of rear tires that will accompany us in the desert stretches has been another little marathon. What we wanted was the Michelin Desert, which is a tire used specifically for desert racing (THE tire of the Dakar Rally).

Not only it features a particular tread pattern which will help us deal with the soft sand, but it is also considered virtually indestructible (it can run even when flat due to its heavily supported side walls), which means we can run it in extremely low tire pressures, necessary when one negotiates sand dunes! The problem was the availability of this tire. In Greece it was impossible to locate it, and we were getting various quotes that ranged between two to three months for delivery. We tried through a supplier in Germany but he was out of stock. We then tried through a friend of mine in Italy who races in Rallyes, but guess what, he was racing at a Rally in Abu Dhabi and could not help us on time. Finally we managed to locate a store in England, where they had the tires and were kind enough to ship them to us!!! They are still not here but will arrive soon (fingers crossed). These however are only the rear ones.

Michelin T63

In the front we will be using a different tire, the Michelin T63, which has a softer rubber, yet it is still very capable off road. This combination will allow us to deal with the tarmac sections between the pistes with more ease and stability. The strength of the tires will be further supported by heavy duty 4mm inner tubes.
 Both of these tires will be lashed on the bikes once we depart from Greece, and we will only place them just before we enter Mauritania, in order to preserve their treads and have a comfortable journey on the tarmac.

Metzeler Sahara

Continental TKC 80

Until then Alex will be wearing a pair of Metzeler Saharas (a 70/30 tire, road/off road) on the 690, and I will be wearing a pair of Continental TKC 80's (a 50/50 tire) on the 640. These will be buried in Mauritania (a precaution in case we need to ride back the way we came for any reason), since we need to be as light as possible while in the desert. We will both be carrying a full set of thinner inner tubes (to save on packaging volume and weight), as well as a patch kit and all the necessary tools to do tire changes on the side of the road.

The new front mudguard with the cooling slits

Other than that, lots of modifications have been taking place on both bikes.

The 640 got a whole new set of rear plastic covers, giving it a fresher look, and a front mudguard from the 690 Enduro, which will provide better air cooling to the radiator since it features slits at its lower end.

The bleeder screws are the two visible Philips screws on either side of the ignition

The original bleeder screws of the front forks were replaced with press down bleeder valves, thus saving me from having to unscrew these at the end of every dirt section on a daily basis.

Here you can see the bleeder valves below the handle bar

The new look

The handlebar was raised by 3cm using aluminum spacers, which will allow me to ride standing up on the footpegs in a better posture than before (this type of riding is necessary when riding offroad as it provides better control of the bike and more visibility for the upcoming obstacles). A side stand was added along with the original double stand, in order to assist me getting on and off the loaded bike. Finally a plate was placed on the rear rack in order to provide a better loading platform for the extra set of tires.

We are also both adding specialized air filters on the intake of the engines, that can better cope with the sand-filled air of the Sahara. In order to avoid cleaning these filters on a regular basis (a messy and lengthy but necessary nonetheless process), we will fit over them a protective stocking and carry a few spare of those in order to change them when needed.

The carburetor of the 640 will be adjusted to cope with the lower octane fuel that is available south of Morocco, while the 690 has an electronic setting for a poor fuel mix (that's what 10 years of technological advances do to a bike...). In order to give the bikes an extra push we will carry octane boosters in the form of tablets (used for racing), that we are planning to add to the fuel of Mauritania and Mali. 

Andreas working on the 690

The Safari tank

The 690 also got a whole new look. The major modification that took place last week was the installation of the long awaited Safari tank. The main problem we had so far with the 690 was that its original tank had a capacity of only 12 liters, something that could not get us very far (even though the 690 is an extremely economic bike when it comes down to fuel consumption). A special order was made and the Safari tank arrived from Germany, thus giving the bike an extra 14 liter fuel capacity (total of 26 liters), which under normal conditions will lead to a range of over 500 kilometers!!! The Safari tank required precision drilling by Alex, who managed to install it together with the help of his good friend Andreas. Now the 690 has two separate tanks, the original in the rear of the bike and the Safari in the front, both linked together. Alex has the option of using only one of the two, which adds an extra degree of safety, should one of the tanks get a puncture during a fall. Also the extra weight added to the front of the bike with the installation of the new tank provided a better center of balance when the bike is fully loaded with the side panniers, and thus better riding behavior.

Windscreen and a whole new badass look for the 690 Enduro

Another issue that had to be addressed on the 690 was that of the poor wind protection. As it is a pure enduro bike, wind protection is not something of a concern for the rider. But we will be riding for thousands of kilometers on tarmac and therefore be very exposed to the elements. The solution to this came from KTM Powerparts. A small windscreen was drilled on the original front plate of the 690, and even though it does not look like much, it works miracles, sending the air much higher than before!

Finally to solve the issue of the "thin wooden plank" racing seat of the 690, a gel insulated cover will be lashed on top in order to provide Alex with better seating comfort for the loooong hours of riding.